Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Since this whole blog is essentially my online note book and collection, I could think of no better place to start recording ideas and destinations for a trip I hope and plan to embark on someday in the near future.

First into the collection is Choke motorcycle shop and coffee house in LA.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

One guilty pleasure of mine is pouring over the details of military equipment, there is real purity and dedication to purpose displayed in every object. Function, durability and maintenance are the only considerations, there is no marketing department, and the accountant has funds that need to be allocated rather than justified.

The reason I say "guilty pleasure" is because I'm always uneasy about the purpose they are designed for, however I have no such qualms about the tools above. These are specialised tools designed for particular tasks to be undertaken by in the Hubble telescope repair mission by NASA.

Medical tools are another terrestrial field that approaches the same function over form mantra, but that just lacks something in the "cool" department!

Click over to the gallery at NPR for more stunning photos of even more stunning tools.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

While putting some things on ebay to sell I found this Husqvarna tank, this has to be one of the best logos and use of typography in the motorcycle domain. I especially love the black on one side, bronze on the other!

Good friends Lesley and Sam have taken the bull by the horns and are trying to get the rag-tag group of local industrial designers together the network and collaborate, they are doing this under the banner of the Design Collaborative of South Australia. We have had sporadic get-togethers for many years and this will build upon the connections already in place and take it to the next level so we can all help each other to help ourselves. I'm really looking forward to helping out and seeing this grow.

We had the first night under this guise a few weeks ago, and while the turn out was quite small, all those in attendance were passionate and enthusiastic about the common goals, especially after some great wine! Bring on the 28th of September for the next catch up.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

NOFX and Bad Religion are coming out again next month and it's gearing up to be a cracking gig as usual. The description from the ticketing agent sums it up better then I could hope to:"Remember Christmas time when you were a kid. The extended family in your backyard, BBQs and drunken adults? You loved seeing your slightly strange uncle. The one with the piercing and the tattoo of the stoned tuna. He was different to your Dad, mysterious, exciting, a little dangerous. Well, imagine if there wasn just one uncle, but two of them, and instead of Christmas it was the Thebby. And instead of this entire laboured metaphor, it was NOFX & BAD RELIGION! The two slightly weird uncles of punk, or punkles, coming to our backyard, together! NOFX and Bad Religion. Sharing a stage. We e talking political and socially aware diatribes wrapped up in tight-as-@*#@ punk rock. They e older than you, and they rock a lot harder than you ever will. Kind of like your drunk uncle"

I know nothing about this bike other than it's German and made of wooden tubing as it was emailed to me with no other info. Certainly looks interesting and quite feasible, though I have the same initial suspicions as most I'm sure about the risk of delamination in the seat stays.

For some reason I was reflecting on my day yesterday and I've come to the conclusion I may have a problem: I'm addicted to bikes.

Case in point, my day: rode the mountain bike to work, spent my lunch break making a polo mallet, cranked home and grabbed the motorbike to head out to the velodrome. Spent a few hours riding there before heading home to discover I'd won a track bike on ebay, sweet another for the growing stable! This was followed by a beer while watching BMX Road Fools, then doing some sketching for a bike I'm designing for a stupidly long and pointless road trip next year.